


dear future husband

by zoeyclarke



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: (and maybe a little scared of commitment), Buck is his usual impulsive self, M/M, One Shot, Weddings, angsty fluff, set a few years in the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 02:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21263327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoeyclarke/pseuds/zoeyclarke
Summary: “It’s funny, you know,” Eddie said after a period of silence filled with thudding, painful heartbeats, “for a paramedic, you’re just as good at breaking hearts as you are at fixing them.”





	dear future husband

**Author's Note:**

> so i've been lurking here in the fandom since season one, episode one premiered, and only now was i finally inspired to write something. i love these boys so much, they deserve all the happiness and hugs from christopher in the world. i hope you all like this and thank you for reading <3

Seeing Christopher in a little suit just about made Buck’s heart melt. He stood at the side of the dance floor, watching as Chimney gently twirled the boy around.

But then again, “little” wasn’t exactly the right word to describe Christopher anymore. Now ten years old, Eddie’s son had grown into a thoughtful and inquisitive fourth-grader (almost fifth-grader) who was just as sweet as the day Buck first met him.

The suit was a little ill-fitting, the sleeves drooping down the boy’s twiggy arms, but the wide, gaping smile on Christopher’s face filled out his appearance nicely, and matched the cheerfulness of his red polka-dotted bowtie. Chimney slowly spun him around again, their feet stepping in sync over the scratched wooden floor. Chim sure seemed to be having a lot of fun dancing at his own wedding with someone who wasn’t his wife... but Christopher could get a pass for being an attention hog.

Buck was still lost in thought, gazing at them with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t notice his sister standing beside him for nearly a minute until she spoke.

“So, what’s keeping you from dancing?” Maddie asked, tilting her head at him. She looked positively gorgeous; a white lace gown hugged her form and sprayed out at her feet like a fountain. Her hair was pinned back in a bun save for a few locks that had escaped to frame her face. Buck had always wondered what his sister looked like in a wedding dress, since he had never seen her the first time she married. Now, he couldn’t help but feel relieved he hadn’t been a witness to the toxic union that had served as her escape from the less than loving Buckley household. He used to wish she had taken him along with her and Doug... but not anymore.

Buck hoped he hid how startled he was, but Maddie could always see right through him as if he was made of crystal. “Oh!” he said, sparing her a glance before returning his eyes to his brother-in-law and Chris. “I’m just, uh, watching Chim and Chris out there. They’re pretty good.”

His sister laughed. “You know what my ridiculous husband said when Christopher asked for a dance?”

“What?”

“He was like, ‘Better watch out for this one, he’s Mr. Steal-Your-Man!’”

They both nearly doubled over, and Buck was especially amused by her exaggerated impression of Chimney’s voice. When the laughter faded, Maddie apparently couldn’t resist getting a dig on her brother because then she added, “Chris takes after his father, huh?”

Buck scowled at her, and only found brown eyes twinkling with mirth. “Right,” he said. “Very funny.”

“I’m not wrong, am I?” Her gaze wandered absently back to the crowded dance floor. “Speaking of Eddie, where is he?”

Buck shifted his weight and didn’t look at her. “He went to get something from the car.”

“Oh. It feels like I haven’t seen him in hours, though--”

“Well, it’s your wedding, I think you’ve been pretty busy,” Buck interrupted. With a forced smile, he leaned over and planted a chaste kiss on his sister’s head. “I’ll catch you later, Mads.”

He could feel her peering after him as he walked away, but Buck didn’t look back. He retreated from where the busiest of the festivities were. He needed space and quiet. He walked past countless tables and chairs decorated with bows and bouquet centerpieces, nodded hello to Hen and Karen who were catching their breath for a moment after dancing, and made his way outside.

It was early August, so the air outside was stifling compared to the hotel’s frosty air conditioning. Sweat began to accumulate in various places the second he stepped outside, so he slid off his outer jacket and slung it over his shoulder. Buck then walked around the corner and leaned back on the rough brick wall, staring out at the parking lot. But a bunch of parked cars weren’t nearly as entertaining as watching Christopher and Chimney spin around to “Uptown Funk.”

Buck knew where Eddie’s truck was parked, because he had arrived here with him and Christopher. He also knew it had been a lie when Eddie told him hours ago that he “needed to get something from the car,” so he was stunned to see that, when he squinted at the vehicle, one Eddie Diaz was indeed sitting inside.

Glancing both ways as if this was some forbidden meeting, Buck crept cautiously over to the truck. Eddie was slouched behind the wheel with his head back against the headrest and his eyes closed. The outer jacket of his gray tux was also gone, and his tie was loosened. He looked like the illustration one would find under “exhausted” in the dictionary.

Buck hesitated, then swallowed any doubts and lightly rapped his knuckles on the passenger side window. Eddie’s eyes popped open and darted over to where Buck waited hopefully on the other side of the smudged glass. Then his brow became heavy over narrowed eyes, and all of Buck’s hopes were flushed down the drain. He pulled at the door handle, but it remained locked.

“Eddie, please,” he said. He leaned close enough for his breath to fog up the window. Then he got an idea. Puffing out several more breaths onto the glass, Buck used his index finger to trace a heart shape. Still Eddie ignored him. Buck wasn’t about to give up, but he was really scraping at the bottom of the barrel here. He sighed heavily, exhaling more drawing space onto the window, and before the condensation ebbed away he recreated the heart and this time accompanied it with a question mark. He spotted hazel eyes land on his drawing through a now even more smudgy window. Then there was the click of a lock.

Buck wasted no time swinging open the door and jumping in. Before he had even shut the door again, however, Eddie was saying, “You forgot to make it backwards.”

Confusion carved deep wrinkles into Buck’s forehead. “What?”

Eddie rolled his head toward him. There was still a frown around the edges of his words as he said, “If you were drawing that picture for me to see, you should’ve made the question mark backwards from your view. You didn’t, so it looked backwards to me.”

“Okay, but I still got the point across, right?” Buck asked. There was no response, so he pushed on. “Babe, listen, I--”

Eddie cut in. “Buck, I- I’m not sure if you should be calling me ‘babe’ if you apparently ‘don’t know where this relationship is gonna go.’” Buck blinked at him, then shifted his eyes to the floor. “Don’t you remember saying that, not even a few hours ago?”

Buck dug his fingers into the soft cloth fabric of his seat. This wasn’t fair. He had promised,  _ they  _ had promised, never to lie to each other. And he couldn’t lie to Eddie. It wasn’t encoded in his DNA to lie to Eddie, not anymore. Ever since Buck had nearly exchanged a lie for his life a couple years ago, he had vowed not to do it ever again.

“It’s funny, you know,” Eddie said after a period of silence filled with thudding, painful heartbeats, “for a paramedic, you’re just as good at breaking hearts as you are at fixing them.”

“Then let me fix this,” Buck implored. “I just... Eddie, I had to be honest with you.”

“So why did you say that?”

“Because!” The word was meaningless without more words after it, Buck knew that, but it exploded out of his mouth anyway. He allowed himself a moment to assemble his thoughts. “Because... because I was scared. A- and I still am. But I know there’s no reason for me to be, b- because I have you.”

At last, the desperate hook Buck threw out seemed to snag on something. Eddie shifted his gaze over to him, and at the moment of eye contact Buck’s heart started to slam harder and crawl up his throat.

“It didn’t seem like you want to have me anymore. Am I wrong?”

Buck nodded rapidly. “Yes! And I was wrong to put it that way. I  _ love you,  _ Eddie Diaz. I- I’m sorry.”

“I still love you too, Evan,” Eddie murmured. The inclusion of  _ still  _ was a stab in Buck’s gut. Was that really necessary? As if Eddie loving him was something that shouldn’t  _ still _ exist, but was  _ still _ there anyway?

“You know you and Christopher are...” Buck trailed off, pupils flitting back and forth as he tried to dig up suitable words. “... you guys are my whole  _ life,  _ Eddie. I have known you for three years. Losing you would... would mean tearing those three years out of me along with the... the rest of my life.”

Tears glittered in Eddie’s eyes - the angst of the past few hours liquified into beautiful hazel pools. Without a word, he leaned over the center console and captured Buck’s lips. They kissed slow and steady, Eddie’s mouth feather-light over Buck’s. He was overwhelmed with the essence of familiar stubble scraping his skin, the taste of vanilla wedding cake, and stale minty cologne.

When they separated, their foreheads were still pressed together as Buck panted, “Babe, I want to wear it.” Eddie brushed their noses and Buck muttered, “Please.”

He wasn’t sure where Eddie had been hiding the tiny object all this time, but when Buck laid his eyes on it again, his heart blossomed like his sister’s pink and white floral bouquets. Eddie slid the ring onto the appropriate finger and gifted Buck with another swift kiss.

They knew it was Maddie and Chimney’s night. And so they stayed in their moment for just a little longer, lingering in the heated euphoria in the cabin of Eddie’s old pickup truck. When they returned to the ballroom later, hands were woven together, smiles were restored, and Christopher rushed over with plenty of hugs.


End file.
